PixelatedImage Blog

I am so excited this morning to be releasing Dave Delnea’s Below The Horizon, Understanding Light at the Edges of Day.

A year ago I found Dave Delnea, a Vancouver photographer, online. I was immediately drawn to his work for his incredible understanding of, and ability to capture, light. We’ve become close friends over this year and he wound up in VisionMongers because of my respect for his work and his career. So when it came to collaborating with other photographers on eBooks, Dave was one of the first people I asked to participate.

Below The Horizon is an inspiring read, as much for the images as for his encouragement to take this basic knowledge and get out there and play. There are no secrets here, just solid information and incredible images to back it up and push us out the door.

This is Friday, February 26. For the first 48 hours+ of this release, until midnight PST at the end of Sunday the 28th, Below The Horizon can be had for an introductory price of $4 instead of the usual $5. But that’s not all! If you buy 4 or more of the books, and there are now 8 Craft & Vision titles to choose from, you can have 20% off your order.

Use coupon code DELNEA4 to get Below The Horizon for $4.
Use coupon code DELNEA20 to get 4 or more of the Craft & Vision titles for 20% off.

Buy Below The Horizon Now
Take me to Craft & Vision to buy a set.

I wanted to introduce you to Dave Delnea this morning. On Friday we’re releasing his eBook, Below The Horizon, and it seemed only right that you meet him first. Dave is a friend of mine, and a photographer whose craft and creativity I deeply admire. I know few photographers who have as much passion for actually going out and creating images just for the sake of their creation and engagement in the process.  You can find his work at DaveDelnea.com, and read about his career in VisionMongers. Below the Horizon launches early Friday morning, depending on your time zone, and will have a very limited time discount.

I was 22 when I made the decision to commit myself to pursuing the craft of landscape photography. Having no real clue how to go about this I did what any young, somewhat irresponsible, adventure-starved kid would do; I quit my job, jumped into my car and headed for the mountains.  I spent months living in my tent and car, eating instant noodles and hiding from the park rangers (I had a bit of an aversion to paying for campsites).  I found that the shots that I would get the most excited about were the ones that came from the very edges of the day.  I loved shooting long dusk exposures and seeing how the water and clouds would move through the frame, I would run around with my headlamp and use it to lightpaint rocks and trees in the scene, I would hike hours in the dark to get to a location to set up a star-trails shot where I would sleep beside my camera while it rendered a single image.

I have such fantastic memories of those times – and the skills I learned then are what helped to start my career in photography and continue to be an integral part of it.  I now shoot primarily for commercial clients and have applied the concepts I discuss in this ebook on photoshoots for resorts, hotels, architecture and tourism clients, ad agencies and design firms.  I still have simple shoots that are just me, my camera and a tripod – while others incorporate a whole crew of people along with elaborate lighting set-ups.  Still the concepts I use are based on the same skills learned from my park-ranger-hiding, instant-noodle-eating, time in the mountains.

I hope this coming ebook inspires you to head out with your camera at some ridiculous hour of the day so you can experience the same excitement I do at seeing these sorts of images appear on your camera’s LCD.  As I say in the book – it’s not always easy to get yourself out at those hours of the day, but I’ve never once regretted the effort.

happy shooting
dave.

Image 1:
A 6 hour exposure of the stars over the “Giant Cleft” a unique
geological feature in Cathedral Provincial Park, BC, Canada.

Image 2:
An evening twilight shot of where the the Coquihalla River meets the
Fraser River (Hope, BC, Canada)

I photographed this man in Senegal earlier this month during some much needed time off. The encounter was so typical of much of my travels. You meet someone, drawn by their smile, their character, and with permission you raise the camera. And then it vanishes. For one reason or another that authentic thing that drew you disappears behind what? Something cultural that makes many African men get very stoic in the same way it makes asian girls flash a peace sign and cheesecake grin? Fear? Nerves? Whatever it is, that mask is often a layer of protection we don and in so doing we prevent our true selves from being seen. My job, because of the kinds of images I want, is to help draw that mask back down.

I am not seeking smiles, per se. Those can be as fake as the other masks we were. I am seeking a genuine expression of humanity, and while the stoic mask – or the cheesy peace sign – is certainly genuine, it’s not the vulnerable person underneath I capture in those cases, but the mask itself. What does it take to draw that mask down? Vulnerability on your own part. People trust those who trust them. I show my subjects my trust by being willing to stumble badly over language in attempts to communicate, or simply to clown around with them. Take the moment less seriously and often they will too. Portraiture is a dance and it needs to be approached as a collaboration. The more willing you are to wait it out, slow down, and be vulnerable, the more readily your subject will be able to do the same.

Click on the image above to see the complete sequence in a larger image.

Shortly after I started Craft & Vision I approached some of the photographers from whom I myself get inspiration and I asked them to work with me to bring what they do to my readers. My friend Dave Delnea, whose work and career you can explore in VisionMongers as well, is the first photographer out of the gate and I’m thrilled to be able to release his eBook, Below The Horizon, in the next week or so.

Below The Horizon, Understanding Light at the Edges of Day is an inspiring 40-page PDF ebook, much like others in the Craft & Vision line-up. It was reading Delnea’s rough drafts before going to Kenya that pushed me to create some of my favourite work in a long time. Here’s what I wrote in the Foreword:

I shot the image on this page while on safari in Kenya this January. It was reading the rough notes that eventually became this book that finally opened my eyes to the possibilities to be found in shooting at the far edges of day.  Like so many great learning moments, it was the inspiration I took from Below The Horizon that pushed me to get out and play with this stuff.  The information in this eBook is valuable, but as David himself points out, it’s not rocket science.

Shooting at the edges of day and learning to see the interplay possible between light and time, and how that affects the aesthetics of the image, has opened a whole new world to me. I came back from Kenya with images that excited me more than any I’ve shot in a long time, in part because playing with this stuff, and learning to understand it, creates images that do what I want all my photographs to do: create mood and the feeling of being there. I want my work to say “It felt like this…” not only “It looked like this….”

Take the time to absorb this stuff, but when you’ve done so, shut the computer or turn off your tablet, and go out in the growing or fading light and play. Learn, as David suggests, to see the light that’s only here for a few minutes every day. Everyone shoots when it’s easy to be awake and handhold the camera above 1/60, shooting in the near darkness will invigorate you, inspire you, and produce images with uncommon mood and visual pull.

We’ll be releasing this in the next week or two. When we do there will be, as there was last time, a limited-time discount offered for both single books and a bunch of them at once, as a thank you to my readers. This is an excellent addition to the growing line of ebooks at Craft & Vision and one that has personally inspired and energized my own work. I’m really proud and excited to offer it and the moment it’s up it’ll be announced here.

On Monday I posted images from the safari I did this January. It was an incredible trip, even if I’d never created a single frame I’d have come home excited. Being out on the Serengeti is an experience; being among the big cats, elephants, giraffe – just too cool.

It was my first safari and there was a learning curve, but I’ve often found the best images come at the steepest inclines of that learning curve because we’re pushed beyond the edges of what’s familiar and we begin to see things differently.

I packed way too much for this one, treating it like a usual travel assignment. I could have brought much, much less stuff. Our safari guide, not a photographer, had one small bag for his clothes. I had 2 carry-ons a peli-case and a large North Face duffle. Next time, half the clothes, and half the gear.

I shot primarily with a 300/2.8 IS lens, often with a 1.4x or 2x on it, and a second body with a 70-200/2.8 IS lens at the ready. This was a great combination. A single body with a single lens would have been a greater challenge.  

I began shooting with my 300/2.8 on a Gitzo carbon fibre monopod, but it was unwieldly and got in the way. By half-way through the safari I’d swtiched fulltime to my Kinesis beanbag, I think they call it the Safari Sack. I love that beanbag and if there’s one thing I’d recommend for anyone doing a safari, it’s the Kinesis beanbag. It’s big and solid and far sturdier and softening than a monopod. Arrive with it empty, then put 10lbs or more of lentils in it. And put a piece of tape with your name on it so you don’t lose it.

I don’t know what other safari vehicles are like but ours allowed us to stand up and where the roof separated from the pop-top there was a strong metal lip all the way around the passenger area where we’d put our beanbags. Next time I’m bringing a Super-clamp and extra ballhead to secure my second body to this. Would make managing a second body really easy. As it is several of us just hooked the tripod mount on our longer lenses over this lip and it worked nicely.

Not shooting from a monopod also gives the advantage of getting low and shooting through the lower windows. When you stand up in a safari vehicle and shoot down on the critters you don’t get nearly the wild perspective you can when you get closer to eye level. I was up and down a lot trying to vary my perspective and often the best one was the lowest one. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. In your photography if you want to change the viewers perspective on things, you must first change your own.

The Gura Gear Kiboko bag gets raves on this and I’ll do a whole other review on it later. As I’ve said before I’m a huge fan of Think Tank Photo and their gear goes with me everywhere. But for this trip I wanted the advantages of the Kiboko and it did not disappoint. Highly, highly recommended. I just got back from Senegal and the Kiboko fit perfectly, fully loaded, into little CRJ and Embraer 170 overhead bins. Well done, guys.

I knew going into this trip that I would have a hard time adapting my vision and my usual way of expressing that, to something so different. Buffaloes and birds, for crying out loud! And I’d resigned myself to trying to create a series of really close pictures of really beautiful animals, even if they weren’t, per se, really compelling images themselves. But animals in the their context are not so different than people in their context. You look for contrasts, moments of humour, and for gesture. Jay Maisel says “everything has gesture” and he’s absolutely right. Don’t settle for a close shot of an animal anymore than you’d settle for merely a close shot of a person. Wait for something, a look, a gesture. Or seek scenarios in which the animal is themselves a great foreground in front of a great background.

I learned wildlife photography is hard. Really hard. And my estimation of the best wildlife and conservation shooters went up immensely. Of course I feel the same way about great wedding photographers too. It’s not easy, and there are fields of mediocrity out there, but the best ones? They amaze me.

FInally, safari lifestyle is a thing all it’s own and if you’re looking to shoot some great lifestyle/adventure images there is plenty of occasion to do it. One of my highlights was a hot air balloon ride early one morning. Beautiful light, and a chance to shoot something I don’t normally. Safari is more than just lions. There are long full days to shoot in, and the landscapes are stunning. The lodges are beautiful, and if you’re looking for local color, you’ll find lots of it. Models for portraits? You’ll find those too.

I’m counting the days until the next one in January 2011. Who’s coming with me?

I’ve been sitting on these for a while, wondering what to do with them and finally got off my butt and decided to put them into a slideshow. It could be a while before they make it into my portfolio as I’m still figuring out a complete re-build, so here’s a glimpse at what I shot. It’s a rough edit and to my horror I saw that I’ve left a couple dust spots in there which I’ll remove as I do a final edit, so consider this a glimpse at my sketches rather than the final work.

This trip was a lot of fun for so many reasons, not the least of which was the company and the learning curve which I find invigorating, if not at times frustrating (the learning curve, not the company!) Thanks to those that travelled with me on this trip. If you’re reading this and have some of your images you’d like to share, drop a note and a link into the comments.

Click HERE to open that slideshow in a new window.

It’s been a long trip. Senegal was amazing, though as always these things take on a life of their own and present more challenges than you anticipate. What a lovely country. We spent hardly any time in Dakar, and were almost immediately driving out to the Gambian border where our shoot locations were. Dusty, sandy, and hot. The first few days were about 40 degrees Celcius and then it started to get warmer! The people were so gracious and patient with us. Our demands on location are always a little nutty, and the patience with which the Senegalese handled us was remarkable. It’ll be a while before images get posted. Only fair the client sees them first and these things just take time. Until then I’m aiming to get images up from my Kenya safari last month and I’ll aim to do that soon. Between client needs, a book deadline, and the need for some personal time, I’ll do what I can to post when I can.

We flew back to Washington, which right now seems mostly recovered from all the insane flight delays, though we got in late enough that I missed my flights and I’ve decided to take this chance to re-route and stay off the radar for a few more days, get some work done, and keep my iphone and email program off for a little more silence. You always plan to have time for this stuff when you travel, but it’s always a ridiculous expectation. So, with my apologies, I’m going to be quiet for a little while longer.

The image above was shot on the island of Goree, just off Dakar. Lovely place, though haunted by its past as slave quarters in the slave trade. Gary and I spent a couple hours there, wandering and shooting, and generally hoping to avoid getting arrested as a friend of mine did while shooting there a few years ago. See you when I get home and settled.